Another tech giant has fallen. At stake is a portfolio of 1100 digital imaging patents. I wonder who'll snap them up?

Quote:

Eastman Kodak said early Thursday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, as the 131-year-old film pioneer struggled to adapt to an increasingly digital world.

As part of its filing, made in the federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York, Kodak will seek to continue selling a portfolio of 1,100 digital imaging patents to raise cash for its loss-making operations.

The company plans to continue operating normally as it reorganizes under Chapter 11 protection.

But it is interesting.
In my mind it goes to show how fast things are changing in today's post-modern world. And as pointed out it does have some implications for what is happening in the world of publishing.

Kodak releasedthe agent of their own destruction when they produced the DCS460, 420 and 465 digital cameras in 1995. They were afraid to put the full weight of their energies behind the technology for fear of killing off their film divisions.

Instead they gave their competition a decade long chance to catch up which they did and that was the end of it

Another odd decision was to sell of a division called Eastman Chemicals a few years ago. It was founded by George Eastman himself but Kodak didn't consider the company important or core to their business. It is doing very well and the company must be pleased they are not being dragged down by this

Kodak has put up for sale some 1,100 patents, the most valuable of which relate to digital-photo technology. The company, which earlier this year filed for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan, is hoping that the proceeds of the sale help vault it out of bankruptcy. The company has said the entire portfolio could be worth as much as $2.6 billion.

Initial bids for the portfolio are due later today.

The battle lines are forming. Apple is teaming up with Microsoft Corp.and patent aggregation firm Intellectual Ventures Management LLC to form one bidding group. The other consortium is likely to include Google, patent aggregation firm RPX Corp., and three hardware companies that make phones based on Google’s Android operating system: Samsung, LG Electronics andand HTC Corp.

The lineups show that the divisions are blurring between big technology companies and patent aggregators, which accumulate troves of patents and put them to use primarily in suits and licensing negotiations rather than products.

That's really sad they had to file for bankcrupcy. I've used kodak products in the past and they were great. But now people use cell phones, digital cameras to take pictures. I wonder what will happen to the kodak self-printing booths in the photo centers in Walmarts.

Yeah, it is amazing what a small technological shift together with a refusal to adapt can do to a great company, it is really fast once that snowball start rolling. Remington or Olivetti typewriters anyone? Compare that to how IBM handled the switch to computers.